The present invention relates, in general, to display devices, and more particularly, to a novel control scheme for operating a display.
Matrix addressing techniques are well known in the art and have been utilized to control various types of displays such as light emitting diode (LED) displays, and field emission device (FED) displays. Matrix addressing schemes typically organize the light emitting elements or pixels into a number of rows and columns with each pixel at an intersection of a particular row and a particular column. Illuminating the pixel requires activating an intersecting row and column thereby providing a closed current path that includes the pixel to be illuminated.
As the resolution of displays increase, the number of pixels in each row and column also increases and the amount of time available to illuminate each pixel decreases. As the illumination time decreases, each pixel must be driven with a larger current to provide a pixel intensity that maintains acceptable image intensity and viewing characteristics. Driving the pixel with a larger current generally results in reducing the useful lifetime of the pixel thereby limiting the useful lifetime of the display.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a display control scheme that increases the active time for each pixel, and that increases the lifetime for each pixel.